office 2007 compatibility pack cannot read dotx

[mkengel]

The office 2007 compatibility pack cannot read dotx files.
(I am using Office 2003 Pro)
It must be a feature because the installer even doesn't register the
file format to Windows.

Very disappointing !

 

[Jay Freedman]

That's correct. I'm not sure of all the considerations that led to it,
but the compatibility pack's ignorance of dotx format is by design.

If you need to use the same template in Word 2003, you'll have to
convert it to .dot format within Word 2007. First open it in Word 2007
and choose (Office button) > Save As > Word 97-2003 Document, and
select "Word 97-2003 Template (*.dot)" in the "Save as type" dropdown.
Just as for down-level saving of documents, you'll be warned if the
template contains any objects that can't be retained in 2003 -- for
example, Smart Art will be converted to plain pictures.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Anders]

That's correct. I'm not sure of all the considerations that led to it,
but the compatibility pack's ignorance of dotx format is by design.

Wow - how incredibly stupid. What about users who have been sent docx
files and don't have access to office 2007? Please don't recommend
installing the office 2007 trial version - if you do that, you won't be
able to revert back to office 2003 without completely reinstalling the
OS, since office 2007 is very sloppy about removing all the various
dlls and resetting the registry on uninstall (we actually tried to
manually clean it up, but it was too big of a mess.

Why in the world can't you make office 2007 files backwards compatible
with this additional piece of software?

 

[Anders]

That's correct. I'm not sure of all the considerations that led to it,
but the compatibility pack's ignorance of dotx format is by design.

Wow - how incredibly stupid. What about users who have been sent docx
files and don't have access to office 2007? Please don't recommend
installing the office 2007 trial version - if you do that, you won't be
able to revert back to office 2003 without completely reinstalling the
OS, since office 2007 is very sloppy about removing all the various
dlls and resetting the registry on uninstall (we actually tried to
manually clean it up, but it was too big of a mess.

Why in the world can't you make office 2007 files backwards compatible
with this additional piece of software?

 

[Jay Freedman]

Older versions with the compatibility pack can read docx files -- that's the
whole point of the compatibility pack. What they can't do is use *templates*
in dotx format. But Office 2007 users can save their templates in 95-2003
(dot) format if necessary.

BTW, in case you're under the impression that I have any influence on this
issue, that's not true. The MVPs aren't Microsoft employees
(http://word.mvps.org/AboutMVPs/index.htm).

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[JoAnn Paules [MVP]]

There's been enough information about how Office 2007 formats are different
from the previous versions. No one should ever send a file that would
require the recipient to download a converter to read it.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

 

[Jay Freedman]

The sender doesn't always know what versions the recipients have. When in
doubt, it's always the sender's responsibility to save in the lowest version
that's likely to be common to all. With templates, that's doubly important
because the converter doesn't handle them at all.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[JoAnn Paules [MVP]]

With 2007 newly released, I still don't think anyone should send a docx file
to someone unless they KNOW that person also has 2007.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi JoAnn,

A lot of folks who use Word may not know, nor believe that they would or should need to know about the 'innards' of a program to use
it. That would include the version Same as folks who would have no reason to think that a file they create in Publisher can't
be opened for viewing unless the person they are sending the file to has also purchased Publisher.

=============
With 2007 newly released, I still don't think anyone should send a docx file
to someone unless they KNOW that person also has 2007.

--

JoAnn Paules >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Guest]

Let me get this straight, cause I am not getting this. MS Office 2007 File
Compatibility Pack cannot/does not work with DOTX files? By DESIGN?

This makes most newer MS Templates unuseable. Is this by DESIGN?

When I try to open a file, in MS Office 2003, I get a "this is a pre-release
version of the Compatibilty Pack" error message. It provides a link to a
current Compatibiltiy Pack. Problem is, the link is the file I downloaded--I
never had any flavor of MS Office Beta on my machine.

I cannot find an MS Office 2007 file viewer, either.

thanks

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi D.J.,

The limitation for the Office 2007 compatibility pack to work only with documents rather than template files for older versions is
an 'as intended' behavior at this point. Templates are apparently more complex to deal with in the conversion than documents.

The compatibility pack will work with the Word 2003 viewer.

If the document you have was created in a pre-release version of Word it may not be usable in release product versions.
==============
Let me get this straight, cause I am not getting this. MS Office 2007 File
Compatibility Pack cannot/does not work with DOTX files? By DESIGN?

This makes most newer MS Templates unuseable. Is this by DESIGN?

When I try to open a file, in MS Office 2003, I get a "this is a pre-release
version of the Compatibilty Pack" error message. It provides a link to a
current Compatibiltiy Pack. Problem is, the link is the file I downloaded--I
never had any flavor of MS Office Beta on my machine.

I cannot find an MS Office 2007 file viewer, either.

thanks
--
DJELLIOTT >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Guest]

Thank you, bob. Looks like 2007 is going to bring a lot of changes....I am
wondering why/how a template file differs from a doc file? I wish MS would
review its office template section and only require 2007 for those documents
that actually need 2007's feature set--or sort by version, so we don't have
to be depressed by templates we can't yet use. I will try using the MS Word
2003 viewer since the 2007 viewer is not available, yet. I know the guy who
will be testing 2007 for our company--time to bring in some food so he'll do
that load, save in 2003 thing for me--whenever he gets around to it!